Speaking at the LeWeb conference in Paris, *PayPal VP Osama Bedier faced boos from the audience* when he was asked why PayPal froze WikiLeaks' account. *He said the US State Department "wrote a letter saying the WikiLeaks activities were deemed illegal in the US"*. However*, the US State Department denied it had sent any such letter to PayPal*. PayPal lat*er clarified that its decision was merely "based on the American government's position".*
In a *new statement <https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/12/updated-statement-about-wikileaks-from-paypal-general-counsel-john-muller/>* released this afternoon, PayPal general counsel John Muller wrote that PayPa*l had acted on a letter sent to WikiLeaks, not PayPal itself. *"Ultimately, our difficult decision was based on a belief that the WikiLeaks website was encouraging sources to release classified material, which is likely a violation of law by the source," he said. ------
FC